UP318 ReThinking Sport: Inside the European Club Association

Today's guest sits at the epicentre of the football business. Charlie Marshall is the CEO of The European Club Association (ECA), the hugely influential organisation, which is the only group officially recognised by both UEFA and FIFA as the sole, independent body for football clubs at European level.We talk about the big issues facing the game in the post-Super League era, as ECA seeks to balance the sometimes conflicting objectives of its constituency of members, from the biggest clubs in the world to some of Europe's minnows and everyone in between. Topics covered include:The changing format and access to Uefa club competitionsThe likely impact of new financial regulationsThe rules on multi club ownershipThe future of the women's gamePlayer release for national team competitionsThe commercial management of competitions and revenue distribution among clubs.Last year, Uefa and the ECA signed a further letter of intent ahead of the creation of a new joint venture to oversee the commercial management of Uefa club competitions.Uefa Club Competitions SA (UCCSA) oversaw a global agency tender process that led to the Team Marketing agency retaining the mandate to sell broadcast, sponsorship and licensing rights to Uefa club competitions from 2024-25 to 2026-27. The mandate excluded US broadcast rights, which are being sold by the Relevent Sports Group agency over the same period in a deal worth a minimum guarantee of $250m (€260m) per year.UCCSA is now considering whether to take the commercial rights sales in house from 2027-28 onwards, a process overseen by ECA chair Nasser Al-Khelaifi, who is also chairman of Qatar Sports Investments (QSi) sovereign wealth fund , chair of BeIN Sports, the Qatar based broadcaster, and President of French club PSG.This is an episode of Re:Thinking Sport, our series created in collaboration with Portas, the global strategy consultancy dedicated to sport and physical activity.  Jon Culligan, a partner at Portas, is my co-host for this episode.  Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a who's who of the global industry. To join our community of listeners, sign up to the weekly UP Newsletter and follow us on Twitter and TikTok at @UnofficialPartnerWe publish two podcasts each week, on Tuesday and Friday. These are deep conversations with smart people from inside and outside sport. Our entire back catalogue of 500 sports business conversations are available free of charge here. Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify and every podcast app. If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series and live events, you can reach us via the website.